On today’s date March 17, 493: St. Patrick of Ireland died in Saul, Downpatrick (some sources claim his death occurred in 460 or 461).

The first recorded St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the American Colonies occurred in the City of Boston in 1737. The first St. Patrick’s Day celebration in New York City took place at the Crown and Thistle Tavern in 1756.

Photo: St. Patrick baptizing Irish princesses from John Haaren’s Famous Men of the Middle Ages published in 1904 via Wikimedia Commons

Desperate hand to hand combat between Union Cavalry, commanded by Gen. Averell and Stuart’s Rebel Troop, at Kelly’s Ford, on the Rappahannock, Va., March 17, 1863

via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

American WWII veteran and champion golfer Bobby Jones was born on March 17, 1902 in Atlanta, Georgia

Image: Bobby Jones c. 1917 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Ceremonies – New York City – 69th Infantry, N.Y. National Guard approaching St. Patrick’s Cathedral to attend Mass

March 17, 1918

via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in The United States

Four hours after this picture was taken, on March 17, 1945, the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, Germany collapsed, killing 28 and injuring 93 US combat engineers. Despite German demolition attempts the bridge had been captured 10 days before, allowing six Allied divisions to cross the Rhine.

NARA via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

A photo of William Howard Taft at the time he was Chief Justice

– March 17, 1926

via Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016850877/
no known restrictions

U.S. Army scout and frontiersman of the American West, Jim Bridger, was born on March 17, 1804 in
Richmond, Virginia.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Private First Class Edward M. Denellis is shown with the American flag he carried throughout the campaign, finally placing it atop a hill on Iwo Jima.

Photographed on March 17, 1945, this image is a U.S. Marine Corps photograph.

via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

President Ronald Reagan on his way to the Oval Office after a St. Patrick’s Day luncheon at the U.S. Capitol

– 3/17/1988

via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Born March 17, 1849 Cornelia Clapp was a pioneering zoologist, marine biologist, and teacher. She was the first woman in the US awarded a Ph.D. in biology, taught at Mount Holyoke College and was a researcher at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. She’s shown here at 85, shortly before her death in 1934.

Image via Marine Biological Laboratory Archives, CCA 4.0 International via Wikimedia Commons.

“St. Patrick’s Day in America”

c. 1872

by Duval & Hunter, lith., Phila. via Library of Congress, no known restrictions

Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt courting on Campobello Island in 1904

On March 17, 1905 Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt were married.

Theodore Roosevelt who attended the wedding and “gave away” his niece said:
“Well Franklin, there’s nothing like keeping the name in the family.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

East African lions, from the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition (1909–1910) and mounted by George B. Turner, were displayed in Mammal Hall of the newly established United States National Museum, now known as the National Museum of Natural History. About five years before this photo was taken, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History opened its doors to the public on March 17, 1910.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

“Upon the evacuation of Boston by the British, March 17, 1776, the Americans marched in and took possession. The siege had lasted several months. The countersign authorized by Washington for that day of triumph was “St. Patrick,” and the brigadier of the day was Gen. John Sullivan.”

From: The Irish Washingtons at home and abroad , together with some mention of the ancestry of the American Pater patriae. Section written by Thomas Hamilton Murray, published in 1898
https://archive.org/details/irishwashingtons00wash_0/page/32/mode/1up
Source says no known restrictions

Image: Painting of George Washington by American artist Charles Peale Polk who was born on March 17, 1767 in Annapolis, Maryland via Wikimedia Commons, public domain